Black technology: a super empire spanning two worlds

Chapter 299 [Completely Convinced, Heartily Affirmed]

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

Zhou Chengyang circled the lifelike robot beauty on the table, scrutinizing it closely, and said incredulously, "Absolutely impossible. How could such a work cost less than 2 yuan in total materials? I don't believe it even if you beat me to death."

Lin Baiyu, who was standing next to Xiao Yu, moved a few steps closer and whispered in Xiao Yu's ear, "Brother Xiao, I told you, if I told him this number, he would definitely lose his composure on the spot."

Xiao Yu smiled slightly upon hearing this, but did not say anything.

At this moment, President Zhou completely ignored Xiao Yu and the others, and was instead examining the lifelike doll. He touched the doll's skin several times, muttering to himself, "The texture of this skin, the details of the texture, my god... how could it be made for less than 2 yuan?"

After a long while, Zhou Chengyang adjusted his scope and turned to look at Xiao Yu and Lin Baiyu: "This absolutely cannot be made for less than 2 yuan!"

Lin Baiyu said with a smile, "This is indeed a product of the perfect fusion of art and technology. However, Mr. Zhou, although it brings together many innovative and advanced technologies and integrates a large number of precision components, it is still an industrial product after all."

After a brief pause, Lin Baiyu added, "According to the data shown by our internal estimation model, if this product can be mass-produced on a large scale and uses our smart factory solution, the overall cost can be reduced by another third."

Upon hearing this, President Zhou's face twitched, and he said in a hoarse voice, "My God... this can reduce costs by a third?"

Zhou Chengyang was truly speechless; how could this be possible!
After a moment, President Zhou suddenly asked, "What about the R&D costs? Are they included?"

The R&D costs must be astronomical, with so many innovative technologies sitting there.

Xiao Yu, who hadn't said much, smiled mysteriously and said, "The R&D costs are confidential; that's a trade secret of Lingjing Technology."

Xiao Yu added, "However, I can tell you one thing clearly: the R&D costs will not be included in this project. This is because the technology related to the sex dolls is derived from other projects of our company. We just integrate them. So you can understand it as having no R&D costs, or very few R&D costs."

Research and development costs?

What Xiao Yu really wanted to say was that this was technology he had brought over from the Blue Star world, and the research and development cost was actually zero.

To be honest, even Lin Baiyu wasn't quite sure how much the research and development costs were, because Xiao Yu hadn't told him, since there were no research and development costs at all.

Zhou Chengyang was taken aback by his words, then gave a wry smile and said, "Alright..."

At this moment, Mr. Zhou's confidence was severely shaken, and he was internally screaming: "Damn it! These technologies are actually derived from another project of yours? Just by integrating them, you've created a groundbreaking humanoid robot doll? How are others supposed to compete?"

At this moment, President Zhou was completely convinced, absolutely convinced. In front of Xiao Yu and Lingjing Technology, he no longer dared to talk about technology.

Zhou Chengyang was suddenly overjoyed to have the backing of Lingjing Technology. With their terrifying technological strength, once this lifelike doll was launched on the market, it would definitely crush all the competing products on the market.

"Judging from the quality, feel, and technology of this doll, I think it would have a huge market even if it were priced at 10 yuan," Zhou Chengyang commented, looking at the sex doll on the table again.

If the price is really 10 yuan, then it's definitely not something the average person can afford.

But the quality of these lifelike dolls speaks for itself. The average consumer may not be able to afford them, but they won't think they're not worth the price. In fact, they are attractive enough to draw in consumers who can afford them.

After all, there are still quite a few wealthy people in this world.

Putting everything else aside, those who are willing to spend tens of thousands of yuan or even more to buy customized high-end sex dolls would absolutely not be able to resist this sex doll.

In other words, it means being able to easily crush all the competitors, leaving them defenseless, and poaching all their original customers.

Xiao Yu shook his head and said slowly, "What I hope for is to become a product that the general public can afford, so the price should be as affordable as possible. If the general public cannot afford it, then it means that the technology still needs to be improved."

It's worth noting that Xiao Yu's approach to this calculation is completely different from Zhou Chengyang's. Zhou Chengyang might only be calculating the costs of the product itself, but Xiao Yu's calculation is clearly much broader, because there's a potential problem he has to consider. That is, with the implementation of single-organ cloning technology, human life expectancy will double, leading to an unavoidable huge population pressure dilemma.

Despite the continuous decline in the birth rate, a significant increase in life expectancy will completely reshape the current birth-to-death ratio.

Even if the birth rate in China hits a record low, as long as the life expectancy of the living population doubles, the population size in China will still see a significant net increase in the next ten years.

Following this trend, in as little as thirty years and at most fifty years, the absolute number of the national population will double, soaring to a terrifying 30 billion.

This is still based on the current fertility rate as it was previously. Even though there are fewer than 10 million newborns a year now, it seems that over the next 30 years, there will only be 300 million newborns.

However, the reality is not so simple. The significant increase in life expectancy will greatly reshape the existing social structure, including the entire social ideology and values, which will undergo earth-shattering changes.

On one hand, the absolute number of deaths is decreasing due to a significant increase in life expectancy; on the other hand, the absolute number of births is surging.

With this situation of one increasing while the other decreases, the absolute increase in the national population will soar at an astonishing rate.

If the average life expectancy is expected to increase by 100 years, it will take about 100 years for the natural mortality rate and birth rate to reach a new dynamic equilibrium. If it is expected to increase by 200 years, it will take about 200 years.

Within 100 or 200 years of increased life expectancy, if 100 newborns are born but 0 people die naturally, the net population growth rate is 100%.

In this situation, the population will eventually exceed the carrying capacity of resources, leading to disasters such as famine, war, and disease, and causing the population to return to a level that resources can support, which is the so-called Malthusian trap.

Before the boundaries of civilization have completely expanded beyond Earth and into the solar system, relying solely on Earth's existing resources and the sudden surge in life expectancy will inevitably lead to a population explosion and a Malthusian trap.

In other words, before Earth can fully break through to become a Type I planetary civilization, it must avoid the Malthusian trap and curb the explosive growth of its absolute population.

Clearly, Xiao Yu is quite enthusiastic about promoting sex dolls, because this product has a certain effect on curbing the population boom. Of course, to curb the population boom, we can't rely solely on sex dolls, including but not limited to them. At that time, there will definitely be other plans at the national level to promote them as well.

When we reach the level of a Type II stellar civilization in the future, the situation will definitely be different. We will then have to change course and use various methods to encourage people to have as many children as possible, thereby expanding the overall size of the human population.

Because once a civilization reaches the second-level stellar civilization stage, the resources it possesses will be able to support a population in the hundreds of billions, easily accommodating hundreds of billions of people.

However, looking at the next 30 to 50 years from now, it is definitely necessary to curb the overpopulation to avoid exceeding the carrying capacity of Earth's resources.

Sex dolls are certainly effective in curbing population growth, so Xiao Yu is naturally very enthusiastic about promoting this, and the national level will certainly do the same.

In addition to its effectiveness in curbing excessive population growth, this product can also contribute significantly to promoting social harmony and stability.

The desire for dry rice and the astringent feeling are the most primitive intrinsic driving forces for carbon-based life.

Young men are full of vigor and vitality, yet they can't find girlfriends. The current trend is towards not getting married and being afraid of marriage. They have nowhere to release their boundless energy and their emotions cannot be comforted. If there are too many people like this, and it even becomes the mainstream, trouble is bound to happen sooner or later.

This kind of gentle and considerate "cyber wife/girlfriend" is a good solution. It can also reduce young men going out to peek, play a positive role in curbing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, and reduce the cost of social governance.

It is evident that this product has a very positive effect on the current environment, and can solve many problems directly or indirectly.

This is why Xiao Yu had to make this product more accessible to the general public, preventing it from becoming a niche product. Only by making it a mass-market product that everyone can afford can the aforementioned potential problems be solved.

……

(End of this chapter)